Pedophile

I do not actually support banning words, but for the mental exercise and to make a point, I believe that people should stop using the word pedophile because they use it interchangeably with “child molester”.

Stop conflating those who have harmed children with those who may have been born with an unfortunate attraction but still know better than to have sex with a child.

• Not all pedophiles rape children.
• Not all who rape children are pedophiles.

Society has yet to have a serious discussion on this topic. When I see people say that we should “kill all pedophiles”, I am concerned about the innocent pedophiles who may have a sexual attraction to children but will never act on it because they know it is wrong to do so.

Here is a simple fact. People do not have sex with everyone they are attracted to. First, they may be committed to celibacy; second, they may be monogamous and only have sex with their spouse, who they are no longer attracted to, but they have been married for 50 years, so they might as well. Third, we need to be wise in how we use our words so that we don’t mislead people into thinking we are talking about something we are not.

But the question weighing on my mind most is, if someone is a pedophile, where do they go for help? To a therapist? To a pastor? I don’t really know what I would do if I were in their situation because anyone they go to for help will probably kill them or call the police and put them on a sex offender registry, even though they have never touched a child.